By Post Reporters

The Office of the Attorney-General has delayed the indictment of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on charges of being unusually rich as a result of the sale of his shares in Shin Corp.

The OAG said on Friday it wanted to form a joint inquiry panel with the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) to search for more information as that which had been recommended by the ASC was incomplete. The ASC’s tenure ends on Monday.

Waiyawuth Lortrakul, deputy attorneygeneral, said a working panel of prosecutors handling the seizure of Mr Thaksin’s assets was divided on the case.

Some prosecutors agreed that the case needed further investigation.

They said the ASC did not separate the assets Mr Thaksin had prior to facing the allegation from those that he gained after the Shin Corp share transaction, Mr Waiyawuth said.

Those prosecutors reasoned that filing an indictment to have all of Mr Thaksin’s assets worth over 76 billion baht seized may not be fair to him and he may contest this in court, Mr Waiyawuth said.

But other prosecutors argued the indictment should be submitted to the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Position without delay because tomorrow is the deadline for the OAG to make a decision on indicting Mr Thaksin.

Mr Waiyawuth, who heads the prosecution panel, said Jullasingha Wasantasingha, another deputy now acting on behalf of the attorney-general, ordered him to write to the ASC chairman to ask that a joint panel be formed to make further inquiries into the case.

Mr Waiyawuth said the assets seizure case would be the first civil case the OAG would submit to the Supreme Court for indictment.

He said there should be no problem with the timeframe for the OAG to make a decision on indictment.

He said Article 81 of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) law gives the OAG a maximum of 90 days to consider indictment in civil cases.

Therefore, the OAG still has 60 days left to make its decision.

As the ASC’s tenure will end on Monday, he expected the ASC to hand over all the cases to the NCCC.

ASC member Kaewsan Atipho forwarded to the OAG for indictment the case accusing Mr Thaksin of being unusually rich on May 29.